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BRONX TIMES R 28 EPORTER, MAY 24-30, 2019 BTR
Parks (c) joins Borough president Ruben Diaz, Jr. in protesting the Mott Haven jail.
Schneps Media/ Alex Mitchell
CB1 votes down Mott Haven
jail; Arline Parks speaks out
BY ALEX MITCHELL
Community Board 1’s Land Use
Committee, on Thursday, May, 16 voted
“no” on the city’s plan to build a 24 to 25
fl oor jail in Mott Haven at 745 E. 141st
Street to replace the imminently closing
Rikers Island’s prisons.
That motion was fairly predictable,
given that Arline Parks, CEO of Diego
Beekman Mutual Housing, a vicious
opponent to the jail, is the chair of that
committee.
On the evening prior to the vote,
Parks participated in an information
session at Lincoln Hospital with the
board’s Land Use Committee. She used
that opportunity to air her many grievances
concerning the city’s jail proposal.
“What they are doing is not criminal
justice reform,” Parks said.
“Building a jail in a neighborhood
that has historically been riddled
with crime is not only wrong, but
inhumane,” she continued, citing
three federal narcotics raids since
the 1990s, in addition to a major organized
crime bust in 2016, plus a plethora
of local drug busts.
Parks’ non-profi t organization, Diego
Beekman, originally purchased
several depressed properties for $80
years ago, and now the renovated housing
structures are worth an estimated
$300 million.
“We have been here though it all,
we have stayed through it all and made
Mott Haven a better place to live…nobody
from the mayor’s administration
was here during the very bad times, but
now they want to take the good from the
people and women that stuck it out,”
Parks said.
The proposed jail is two miles from
the Bronx Courthouse and the site is
not adequately serviced by mass transit.
She criticized the city’s suggestion
to use the bus line running on nearby
Cypress Avenue, calling the street “one
of the most dangerous in Mott Haven
and the city.”
“It’s dangerous conditions that
made people leave the Bronx in the fi rst
place and I’m already seeing signs that
people will leave Beekman and Mott
Haven,” Parks said.
Besides opposing the proposal to
construct the largest building in Mott
Haven, let alone in the south Bronx,
the jail would be built smack-dab in
the middle of the Beekman’s properties.
Parks had planned to acquire the former
NYPD tow yard to construct more
housing before the city grabbed it.
Her plan for that land was to create
mixed-income housing with a supermarket
and community amenities,
with apartments set aside for the homeless.
Parks said that including tenants
of higher income in the new housing
could cause a ripple effect that would
turn East 138th Street into a vibrant retail
corridor that in turn would bring
economic stability to the Mott Haven
neighborhood.
“I can’t shop on 138th Street as it is,
it just isn’t safe,” Parks said.
After the city announced the plan,
the administration approached Parks
to collaborate on a housing complex
near the jail.
“We told the city that as long as
there wouldn’t be a jail we would help,”
Parks said.
Currently, the city intends to build
affordable housing on a portion of the
jail parcel, which will include other
community services.
“It’s essentially our housing plan
but instead of a retail or manufacturing
facility they’re building a jail,”
Parks said.
CB1’s full board will vote on the
city’s jail proposal on Thursday, May
23.
Although the vote took place after
this issue went to press, the board had
previously noted its intention to collectively
oppose all actions regarding the
jail.